In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, during the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore spanning the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produced. Many of the composers had a direct connection to the Vatican and the papal chapel, though they worked at several churches; stylistically they are often contrasted with the Venetian School of composers, a concurrent movement which was much more progressive. By far the most famous composer of the Roman School is Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose name has been associated for four hundred years with smooth, clear, polyphonic perfection. However, there were other composers working in Rome, and in a variety of styles and forms.

While composers had almost certainly been working in Rome continuously for the thousand years since the time of Gregory the Great, the development of a consistent style around the middle of the 16th century, due in part to the musical requirements of the Counter-Reformation, led to their being grouped together by music historians under this single label.

The music of the Roman School can be seen as the culmination of a development of polyphony through the infusion of music of the Franco-Netherlandish school during the last hundred years. Franco-Netherlandish composers had long been coming to Italy to live and work—Josquin, Obrecht, Arcadelt, and many others made the long journey, and their musical style was decisive on the formation of the Italian styles. Under the guidance of the Vatican, and with the choir of the Sistine Chapel being one of the finest of the time, it was perhaps inevitable that the stylistic center of sacred polyphony would turn out to be Rome.

The Council of Trent, which met from 1545 to 1563, had a significant impact on the music of the Roman School: indeed it can be argued that these reforms in the Roman Catholic Church, which were part of the Counter-Reformation, defined the music of the Roman School. The Council of Trent recommended that sacred music, especially for use in church, be written in a dignified, serious style, the Council allowed polyphony—a common misconception is that they banned it outright, but this is false—however they did require that text which was sung be clearly understandable. In addition, while they did not ban the use of secular melodies as source material for masses and motets, such use was discouraged.

The combination of the reforms of the Council of Trent with the presence of the extremely talented composers inheriting the Franco-Netherlandish style, was the production of a body of music which has sometimes been held to represent the peak of perfection of Renaissance polyphonic clarity, the subject matter of "16th Century Counterpoint" or "Renaissance Polyphony" as taught in contemporary college music curricula is invariably the codified style of the Roman School, as it was understood by Johann Fux in the early 18th century. It is important to recognize, though, that the "Palestrina style" was not the only polyphonic style of the time, though it may have been the most internally consistent, the polyphonic style of Palestrina may have been the culmination of a hundred years of development of the Franco-Netherlandish style, but it was one of many streams in the late 16th century, and significantly contrasts with the music of the Venetian school to the north, as well as the music being produced in France and England at the same time.

Other composers living and working in Rome, while not considered members of the Roman School, certainly influenced them, the most famous of these is probably Luca Marenzio, whose madrigals were wildly popular in Italy and elsewhere in Europe; some of the composers of the Roman School borrowed his expressive techniques, for instance word painting, for occasional use in a liturgical setting.

While the Roman School is considered to be a conservative musical movement, there are important exceptions. Rome was the birthplace of the oratorio, in the work of Giovanni Francesco Anerio and Emilio de' Cavalieri; the score for Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo is the earliest printed score which uses a figured bass. The style is similar to the style of monody being developed in Florence at approximately the same time; indeed there was considerable competition between composers in those two musical centers. The success of Rappresentatione was such that the monodic style became common in much Roman music in the first several decades of the 17th century.

Later composers of the Roman School included Gregorio Allegri, composer of the famous Miserere (c.1630). This piece was guarded closely by the papal chapel; it was considered so beautiful that copies were not allowed to circulate. A favorite story involves the 14-year-old Mozart, who made the first illegal copy by transcribing it from memory after hearing it only twice. Many of the later composers of the Roman School continued to write in the polyphonic style of the 16th century, known then as the stile antico, or the prima pratica, in distinction to the newer styles of monody and concertato writing which defined the beginning of the Baroque era.

Various articles, including "Rome" and articles on the individual composers, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN1-56159-174-2.

1.
Music history
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Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical viewpoint. In theory, music history could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music, in practice, these research topics are often categorized as part of ethnomusicology or cultural studies, whether or not they are ethnographically based. The terms music history and historical musicology usually refer to the history of the music of Western elites, sometimes called art music. The methods of history include source studies, paleography, philology, style criticism, historiography, musical analysis. The two types of courses will usually differ in length, breadth, and depth, some examples might be Music during World War I, Medieval and Renaissance instrumental music, Music and Process, Mozarts Don Giovanni. The methods and tools of music history are nearly as many as its subjects, however, a few trends and approaches can be outlined here. Like in any other discipline, most research in music history can be roughly divided into two categories, the establishing of factual and correct data and the interpretation of data. Most historical research does not fall into one category solely, and it should also be noted that the act of establishing factual data can never be fully separate from the act of interpretation. In some cases, where records, scores, and letters have been digitized, one example of a composer for whom archival materials can be examined online is the Arnold Schoenberg Center. Performance practice draws on many of the tools of historical musicology to answer the question of how music was performed in various places at various times in the past. Scholars investigate questions such as which instruments or voices were used to perform a work, what tempos were used. Biographical studies of composers can give a sense of the chronology of compositions, influences on style and works. Thus biography can form one part of the study of the cultural significance, underlying program, or agenda of a work. Sociological studies focus on the function of music in society as well as its meaning for individuals, researchers emphasizing the social importance of music are sometimes called New musicologists. Semiotic studies are most conventionally the province of music rather than historians. However, crucial to the practice of musical semiotics – the interpretation of meaning in a work or style – is its situation in a historical context, the interpretative work of scholars such as Kofi Agawu and Lawrence Kramer fall between the analytic and the music historical. The first studies of Western musical history date back to the middle of the 18th century, martini published a three volume history titled Storia della musica between 1757 and 1781. Martin Gerbert published a two volume history of sacred music titled De cantu de musica sacra in 1774, Gerbert followed this work with a three volume work Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra containing significant writings on sacred music from the 3rd century onwards in 1784

2.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers

3.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth

4.
Renaissance music
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Renaissance music is vocal and instrumental music written and performed in Europe during the Renaissance era. From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the style of the Franco-Flemish school. The invention of the press in 1440 made it cheaper and easier to distribute music and musical theory texts on a wider geographic scale. Prior to the invention of printing, songs and music that were written down and music theory texts had to be hand-copied, demand for music as entertainment and as a leisure activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. These musicians were sought throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, where churches and aristocratic courts hired them as composers, performers. This reversed the situation from a hundred years earlier, opera, a dramatic staged genre in which singers are accompanied by instruments, arose at this time in Florence. Opera was developed as an attempt to resurrect the music of ancient Greece. Music was increasingly freed from constraints, and more variety was permitted in range, rhythm, harmony, form. In the Renaissance, music became a vehicle for personal expression, composers found ways to make vocal music more expressive of the texts they were setting. Secular music absorbed techniques from sacred music, and vice versa, popular secular forms such as the chanson and madrigal spread throughout Europe. Courts employed virtuoso performers, both singers and instrumentalists, Music also became more self-sufficient with its availability in printed form, existing for its own sake. Precursor versions of familiar modern instruments developed into new forms during the Renaissance. These instruments were modified to responding to the evolution of musical ideas, Early forms of modern woodwind and brass instruments like the bassoon and trombone also appeared, extending the range of sonic color and increasing the sound of instrumental ensembles. From the Renaissance era, notated secular and sacred music survives in quantity, including vocal and instrumental works, an enormous diversity of musical styles and genres flourished during the Renaissance. These can be heard on recordings made in the 20th and 21st century, including masses, motets, madrigals, chansons, accompanied songs, instrumental dances, beginning in the late 20th century, numerous early music ensembles were formed. One of the most pronounced features of early Renaissance European art music was the reliance on the interval of the third. Polyphony – the use of multiple, independent melodic lines, performed simultaneously – became increasingly elaborate throughout the 14th century, the beginning of the 15th century showed simplification, with the composers often striving for smoothness in the melodic parts. The modal characteristics of Renaissance music began to break down towards the end of the period with the use of root motions of fifths or fourths

5.
Baroque music
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Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era, Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality, an approach to writing music in which a song or piece is written in a particular key, during the Baroque era, professional musicians were expected to be accomplished improvisers of both solo melodic lines and accompaniment parts. A characteristic Baroque form was the dance suite, while the pieces in a dance suite were inspired by actual dance music, dance suites were designed for listening, not for accompanying dancers. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate ornamentation, made changes in musical notation. Many musical terms and concepts from this era, such as toccata, fugue, dense, complex polyphonic music, in which multiple independent melody lines were performed simultaneously, was an important part of many Baroque choral and instrumental works. The word baroque comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning misshapen pearl, the term Baroque is generally used by music historians to describe a broad range of styles from a wide geographic region, mostly in Europe, composed over a period of approximately 150 years. The systematic application by historians of the baroque to music of this period is a relatively recent development. In 1919, Curt Sachs became the first to apply the five characteristics of Heinrich Wölfflins theory of the Baroque systematically to music, all of these efforts resulted in appreciable disagreement about time boundaries of the period, especially concerning when it began. In English the term acquired currency only in the 1940s, in the writings of Bukofzer, nevertheless, the term has become widely used and accepted for this broad range of music. It may be helpful to distinguish the Baroque from both the preceding and following periods of musical history, the Baroque period is divided into three major phases, early, middle, and late. Although they overlap in time, they are dated from 1580 to 1630, from 1630 to 1680. In reference to music, they based their ideals on a perception of Classical musical drama that valued discourse, the early realizations of these ideas, including Jacopo Peris Dafne and LEuridice, marked the beginning of opera, which were a catalyst for Baroque music. Concerning music theory, the widespread use of figured bass represents the developing importance of harmony as the linear underpinnings of polyphony. Harmony is the end result of counterpoint, and figured bass is a representation of those harmonies commonly employed in musical performance. With figured bass, numbers, accidentals or symbols were placed above the bassline that was read by keyboard instrument players such as players or pipe organists. The numbers, accidentals or symbols indicated to the player what intervals she should play above each bass note. The keyboard player would improvise a chord voicing for each bass note and this led to the idea that certain sequences of chords, rather than just notes, could provide a sense of closure at the end of a piece—one of the fundamental ideas that became known as tonality

6.
Holy See
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The Holy See, also referred to as the See of Rome, is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, the episcopal see of the Pope, and an independent sovereign entity. It serves as the point of reference for the Catholic Church everywhere. Today, it is responsible for the governance of all Catholics, organised in their Particular Churches, Patriarchates, as an independent sovereign entity, holding the Vatican City enclave in Rome as sovereign territory, it maintains diplomatic relations with other states. Diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole church and it is also recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. The creation of the Vatican City state was meant to ensure the diplomatic, in Greek, the adjective holy or sacred is constantly applied to all such sees as a matter of course. The word see comes from the Latin word sedes, meaning seat, while Saint Peters basilica in Vatican City is perhaps the church most associated with the Papacy, the actual cathedral of the Holy See is the church of Saint John Lateran within the city of Rome. The Pope governs the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia, the Secretariat of State, under the Cardinal Secretary of State, directs and coordinates the Curia. The incumbent, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, is the Sees equivalent of a prime minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, acts as the Holy Sees minister of foreign affairs. Parolin was named in his role by Pope Francis On 31 August 2013, mamberti was named in his role by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2006. The Secretariat of State is the body of the Curia that is situated within Vatican City. The others are in buildings in different parts of Rome that have rights similar to those of embassies. The Roman Rota handles normal judicial appeals, the most numerous being those that concern alleged nullity of marriage and it also oversees the work of other ecclesiastical tribunals at all levels. The most important of these is the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the Prefecture of the Papal Household is responsible for the organization of the papal household, audiences, and ceremonies. The Holy See does not dissolve upon a Popes death or resignation and it instead operates under a different set of laws sede vacante. The government of the See, and therefore of the Catholic Church, canon law prohibits the College and the Camerlengo from introducing any innovations or novelties in the government of the Church during this period. In 2001, the Holy See had a revenue of 422.098 billion Italian lire, the Guardian newspaper described Mennini and his role in the following manner. Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the popes merchant banker, Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the patrimony of the Holy See. The Holy See has been recognized, both in practice and in the writing of modern legal scholars, as a subject of public international law, with rights

7.
Sistine Chapel
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The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected, the fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo. In a different climate after the Sack of Rome, he returned, the fame of Michelangelos paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the late 15th century, there were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet. Of these 50 occasions,35 were masses, of which 8 were held in Basilicas, in general St. Peters and these included the Christmas Day and Easter masses, at which the Pope himself was the celebrant. The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, the Cappella Maggiore derived its name, the Greater Chapel, from the fact that there was another chapel also in use by the Pope and his retinue for daily worship. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV, this was the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, the Cappella Maggiore is recorded as existing in 1368. The proportions of the present chapel appear to follow those of the original. The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 15 August 1483, the Sistine Chapel has maintained its function to the present day, and continues to host the important services of the Papal Calendar, unless the Pope is travelling. There is a permanent choir, the Sistine Chapel Choir, for whom much original music has been written, one of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, if white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election, a new Pope has been elected. The conclave also provided for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time attended by servants. From 1455, conclaves have been held in the Vatican, until the Great Schism, canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves—a sign of equal dignity. After the new Pope accepts his election, he would give his new name, at this time, until reforms instituted by Saint Pius X, the canopies were of different colours to designate which Cardinals had been appointed by which Pope. Its exterior is unadorned by architectural or decorative details, as is common in many Italian churches of the Medieval, subsidence and cracking of masonry such as must also have affected the Cappella Maggiore has necessitated the building of very large buttresses to brace the exterior walls. The accretion of other buildings has further altered the appearance of the Chapel. The building is divided into three stories of which the lowest is a tall basement level with several utilitarian windows

8.
Venetian School (music)
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In music history, the Venetian School was the body and work of composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610. The Venetian polychoral compositions of the sixteenth century were among the most famous musical events in Europe. Several major factors came together to create the Venetian School, another factor, possibly the most important, was the existence of the splendid Basilica San Marco di Venezia, with its unique interior with opposing choir lofts. The first composer to make this effect famous was Adrian Willaert, Marks in 1527, and remained in the position until his death in 1562. Yet another factor which promoted the rich period of creativity was printing. Composers from northern Europe—especially Flanders and France—were already renowned as the most skilled composers in Europe, the international flavor of musical society in the city was to linger into the 17th century. In the 1560s, two groups developed within the Venetian school, a progressive group, led by Baldassare Donato. Friction between the two came to a head in 1569 with a dramatic, public fight between Donato and Zarlino during the Feast of St. Mark. An additional point of contention between the two groups was whether or not Venetians — or at least Italians — should be given the top job of maestro di cappella at St. Marks. The peak of development of the Venetian School was in the 1580s, when Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli composed enormous works for choirs, groups of brass and string instruments. These works are the first to include dynamics, and are among the first to include instructions for ensemble instrumentation. S. The term Venetian School is sometimes used to distinguish it from the contemporary, other important centers of musical activity in Italy at the same time included Florence, Ferrara, Naples, Padua, Mantua and Milan. Major members of the Venetian school include, Venetian polychoral style Neapolitan school Various articles, including Venice, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. ISBN 0-393-09530-4 Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, ISBN 0-393-09745-5 Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. ISBN 0-89917-034-X Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Venetian Instrumental Music, from Gabrieli to Vivaldi, london, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd,1975. ISBN 0-460-03155-4 Blanche Gangwere, Music History During the Renaissance Period, 1520–1550

9.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a influence on the development of church music. Palestrina was born in the town of Palestrina, near Rome, documents suggest that he first visited Rome in 1537, when he is listed as a chorister at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica. He studied with Robin Mallapert and Firmin Lebel and he spent most of his career in the city. Italy itself had yet to produce anyone of comparable fame or skill in polyphony, from 1544 to 1551, Palestrina was the organist of the Cathedral of St. Agapito, the principal church of his native city. This book of Masses was the first by a composer, since in the Italian states of Palestrinas day, most composers of sacred music were from the Low Countries, France, Portugal. In fact the book was modeled on one by Cristóbal de Morales, during the next decade, Palestrina held positions similar to his Julian Chapel appointment at other chapels and churches in Rome, notably St John Lateran, and St Mary Major. In 1571 he returned to the Julian Chapel and remained at St Peters for the rest of his life, the decade of the 1570s was difficult for him personally, he lost his brother, two of his sons, and his wife in three separate outbreaks of the plague. He seems to have considered becoming a priest at this time, but instead he remarried and this finally gave him financial independence and he was able to compose prolifically until his death. He died in Rome of pleurisy in 1594, as was usual, Palestrina was buried on the same day he died, in a plain coffin with a lead plate on which was inscribed Libera me Domine. A five-part psalm for three choirs was sung at the funeral, Palestrinas funeral was held at St. Peters, and he was buried beneath the floor of the basilica. His tomb was covered by new construction and attempts to locate the site have been unsuccessful. Palestrina left hundreds of compositions, including 105 masses,68 offertories, at least 140 madrigals, in addition, there are at least 72 hymns,35 magnificats,11 litanies, and four or five sets of lamentations. The Gloria melody from a Palestrina magnificat is widely used today in the hymn tune. He published just two collections of madrigals with profane texts, one in 1555 and another in 1586, the other two collections were spiritual madrigals, a genre beloved by the proponents of the Counter-Reformation. Palestrinas masses show how his style developed over time. His Missa sine nomine seems to have been attractive to Johann Sebastian Bach. Most of Palestrinas masses appeared in thirteen volumes printed between 1554 and 1601, the last seven published after his death, one of his most important works, the Missa Papae Marcelli, has been historically associated with erroneous information involving the Council of Trent

10.
Polyphony
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Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term polyphony is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. In all cases the conception was probably what Margaret Bent calls dyadic counterpoint, with part being written generally against one other part. The term polyphony is also used more broadly, to describe any musical texture that is not monophonic. Such a perspective considers homophony as a sub-type of polyphony, traditional polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world. Most polyphonic regions of the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and it is believed that the origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predate the emergence of polyphony in European professional music. Currently there are two approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony, the Cultural Model. Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown,900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance. 1000, is the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant. Twelfth-century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, the lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody. The oldest surviving piece of music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in. These musical innovations appeared in a context of societal change. After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular, Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages. However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire. Once these ancient works started being translated thus becoming accessible, the philosophies had a impact on the mind of Western Europe. This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. Avignon, the seat of the antipopes, was a center of secular music-making

11.
Pope Gregory I
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Pope Saint Gregory I, commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was pope of the Catholic Church from 3 September 590 to his death in 604. Gregory is famous for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome to convert a pagan people to Christianity, Gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. He is also known as the Great Visionary of Modern Educational System, for his writings, the epithet Saint Gregory the Dialogist has been attached to him in Eastern Christianity because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Eastern texts will sometimes list him as Gregory Dialogos or the Latinized equivalent Dialogus. A senators son and himself the Prefect of Rome at 30, Gregory tried the monastery but soon returned to public life, ending his life. Although he was the first pope from a background, his prior political experiences may have helped him to be a talented administrator. Gregory regained papal authority in Spain and France, and sent missionaries to England, the realignment of barbarian allegiance to Rome from their Arian Christian alliances shaped medieval Europe. Gregory saw Franks, Lombards, and Visigoths align with Rome in religion, throughout the Middle Ages he was known as the Father of Christian Worship because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman worship of his day. His contributions to the development of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers. He is considered a saint in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, immediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by popular acclaim. The Protestant reformer John Calvin admired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory was the last good pope and he is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers. The exact date of Gregorys birth is uncertain, but is estimated to be around the year 540. The medieval writer who provided this etymology did not hesitate to apply it to the life of Gregory, aelfric states, He was very diligent in Gods Commandments. Gregory was born into a wealthy patrician Roman family with connections to the church. Gregorys mother, Silvia, was well-born, and had a sister, Pateria. His mother and two aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints. Gregorys great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III, the nominee of the Gothic king, Gregorys election to the throne of St Peter made his family the most distinguished clerical dynasty of the period. The family owned and resided in a villa suburbana on the Caelian Hill, the north of the street runs into the Colosseum, the south, the Circus Maximus

12.
Franco-Flemish School
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The diffusion of their technique, especially after the revolutionary development of printing, produced the first true international style since the unification of Gregorian chant in the 9th century. Franco-Flemish composers mainly wrote sacred music, primarily masses, motets, several generations of Renaissance composers from the region loosely known as the Low Countries—i. e. Present-day Northern France, Belgium and the Southern Netherlands—are grouped under Franco-Flemish School, most of these musicians were born in the thriving Burgundian provinces of Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, or Limburg. During periods of political and economic stability, the courts of the Burgundian dukes were a centre of activity in Europe. The exact centres shifted during time, and by the end of the sixteenth century the focal point of the Western musical world had moved from the Low Countries to Italy. Following are five groups, or generations, that are distinguished in the Franco-Flemish/Netherlandish school. Development of this style was continuous, and these generations only provide useful reference points. The First generation, dominated by Guillaume Du Fay, Gilles Binchois and Antoine Busnois, the origins of the style of the first generation embraces both earlier Burgundian traditions and also Italian and English styles. For example, in 1442, the poet Martin le Franc praised Binchois, the Second generation, with Ockeghem as its main exponent, others including Orto, Compère, Prioris, Agricola, Caron, Faugues, Regis and Tinctoris. The Third generation, Obrecht, de la Rue, Isaac, Brumel, Févin, Pipelare, Richafort, Divitis, the Fourth generation, Gombert, Crecquillon, Manchicourt, Arcadelt, Rore, Willaert, Courtois and Clemens non Papa. The Fifth generation, Lassus, de Monte, Vaet, Regnart, Luython, Wert, de Macque, and Rogier. By this time, many of the composers of music were native to Italy and other countries, the Netherlandish style had naturalized on foreign soil. Composed between 1450 and 1520, these motets were written for four voices, with all voices being equal. They often exhibit thick, dark textures, with a low range. The most notable composers of this style include Ockeghem and Josquin, whose De profundis clamavi ad te, category, Franco-Flemish composers The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. A History of Music and Musical Style, by Homer Ulrich & Paul Pisk, register of Polyphonists out of The Low countries/the Netherlands born in between 1400-1600

13.
Josquin des Prez
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Josquin des Prez, often referred to simply as Josquin, was a French composer of the Renaissance. His motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix includes an acrostic of his name and he was the most famous European composer between Guillaume Dufay and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and is usually considered to be the central figure of the Franco-Flemish School. Josquin is widely considered by scholars to be the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music that was emerging during his lifetime. During the 16th century, Josquin gradually acquired the reputation as the greatest composer of the age, his mastery of technique and he was so admired that many anonymous compositions were attributed to him by copyists, probably to increase their sales. The lives of dozens of less revered Renaissance composers are better documented than that of Josquin, Josquin wrote both sacred and secular music, and in all of the significant vocal forms of the age, including masses, motets, chansons and frottole. During the 16th century, he was praised for both his supreme melodic gift and his use of technical devices. Heinrich Glarean wrote in 1547 that Josquin was not only a magnificent virtuoso but capable of being a mocker, little is known for certain of Josquins early life. Much is inferential and speculative, though numerous clues have emerged from his works and the writings of contemporary composers, theorists, and writers of the next several generations. Josquin was long mistaken for a man with a name, Josquin de Kessalia, born around the year 1440. More recent scholarship has shown that Josquin des Prez was born around 1450 or a few years later, around 1466, perhaps on the death of his father, Josquin was named by his uncle and aunt, Gille Lebloitte dit Desprez and Jacque Banestonne, as their heir. Their will gives Josquins actual surname as Lebloitte, according to Matthews and Merkley, des Prez was a nickname. Doubt has been cast on the accuracy of Hémerés account, however, both Jean Mouton and Loyset Compère were buried there and it is certainly possible that Josquin acquired his later connections with the French royal chapel through early experiences at Saint-Quentin. The first definite record of his employment is dated 19 April 1477 and he remained there at least until 1478. One of Josquins early motets, Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo, suggests a connection with Louis XI. In either 1483 or 1484, Josquin is known to have been in the service of the Sforza family in Milan and he was in Milan again in 1489, after a possible period of travel, but he left that year. From 1489 to 1495, Josquin was a member of the choir, first under Pope Innocent VIII. He may have gone there as part of an exchange with Gaspar van Weerbeke. While there, he may have been the one who carved his name into the wall of the Sistine Chapel, a JOSQUINJ was recently revealed by workers restoring the chapel

14.
Jacob Obrecht
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Jacob Obrecht was a Low Countries composer of Low Countries Renaissance music. He was the most famous composer of masses in Europe in the late 15th century, what little is known of Obrechts origins and early childhood comes mostly from his motet Mille quingentis. He was the son of Ghent city trumpeter Willem Obrecht. His mother died in 1460 at the age of 20, details of his early education are sparse, but he probably learned to play the trumpet, like his father, and in so doing learned counterpoint and how to improvise over a cantus firmus. He is likely to have known Antoine Busnois at the Burgundian court, scholar, composer and clergyman, Obrecht seems to have had a succession of short appointments, two of which ended in less than ideal circumstances. There is a record of his compensating for a shortfall in his accounts by donating choirbooks he had copied, throughout the period he was held in the highest esteem both by his patrons and by his fellow composers. Erasmus served as one of Obrechts choirboys around 1476, while most of Obrechts appointments were in Flanders in the Low Countries, he made at least two trips to Italy, once in 1487 at the invitation of Duke Ercole dEste I of Ferrara, and again in 1504. In 1504 Obrecht returned to Ferrara, but on the death of the Duke at the beginning of the year he became unemployed. In what capacity he stayed in Ferrara is unknown, but he died in the outbreak of plague there just before 1 August 1505, Obrecht wrote mainly sacred music—masses and motets—and he also wrote some chansons. Combining modern and archaic elements, Obrechts style is multi-dimensional, Obrechts style is an example of the contrapuntal extravagance of the late 15th century. He once even extracted the component notes and ordered them by note value, long to short, clearly to Obrecht there could not be too much variety, particularly during the musically exploratory period of his early twenties. He began to free from conformity to formes fixes, especially in his chansons. Of the formes fixes, the rondeau retained its popularity longest, however, he much preferred composing Masses, where he found greater freedom. Furthermore, his motets reveal a variety of moods and techniques. In his Missa Sub tuum presidium, the number of parts in the five movements increases from three in the Kyrie, to four in the Gloria, and so on up to seven in the Agnus Dei. The title chant is heard in the top voice throughout the work. Requiring more than an hour to perform, it is one of the longest polyphonic settings of the Mass Ordinary ever written, despite working at the same period, Obrecht and Ockeghem differ significantly in musical style. Obrecht does not share Ockeghems fanciful treatment of the cantus firmus, whereas the phrases in Ockeghems music are ambiguously defined, those of Obrechts music can easily be distinguished, though both composers favor wide-arching melodic structure

15.
Jacques Arcadelt
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Jacques Arcadelt was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in both Italy and France, and principally known as a composer of secular vocal music. He moved to Italy as a man, and was present in Florence by the late 1520s, therefore having an opportunity to meet or work with Philippe Verdelot. Still in Rome, in January 1539, he probably was made a member of the Julian Chapel, after some months there he became a member of the Sistine Chapel, where he was appointed magister puerorum. The same year saw the publication of no less than four books of his madrigals, the first of these collections, Il primo libro di madrigali, went through 45 editions, becoming the most widely reprinted collection of madrigals of the time. Arcadelt remained in Rome as a singer and composer at the Sistine Chapel until 1551, michelangelo paid Arcadelt with a piece of satin suitable for making into a doublet. Arcadelt wrote over 200 madrigals before he left Italy in 1551 to return to France, in 1557 he published a book of masses, dedicated to his new employer, Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorraine. In this publication he was mentioned as a member of the royal chapel, in Paris he employed the publishing house of Le Roy and Ballard, who printed his abundant chansons, masses and motets just as the Venetian printers had earlier printed his madrigals. During his long and productive career, Arcadelt wrote music both sacred and secular, all of it vocal and he left a total of 24 motets,125 French chansons, approximately 250 madrigals, three masses, as well as settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the Magnificat. There may be as many as 250 more madrigals by Arcadelt which survive anonymously in manuscript sources, of all the early madrigalists, he was by far the most universal in his influences as well as his appeal, and his influence on others was enormous. Arcadelt brought the form to its early maturity. Arcadelts several hundred madrigals, composed over a span of at least two decades, were usually for four voices, although he wrote a few for three, and a handful for five and six voices. Stylistically his madrigals are melodious and simple in structure, singable, the music is often syllablic, and while it sometimes uses repeated phrases, is almost always through-composed. Arcadelt alternates homophonic and polyphonic textures, in a state of delicate, additional hints to his popularity are the frequency with which anonymous compositions were attributed to him, and the appearance of his music in several paintings of musicians from the time. Unlike later generations of composers, Arcadelt did not expect professional singers to be the only consumers of his work. Much of the poetry of Arcadelts madrigals has remained anonymous, just as some of Arcadelts music is believed to survive anonymously and this madrigal was appealing on many levels. Here is attained the ideal of what the time expected of the dolcezza, since Arcadelt lived both in France and Italy, and wrote secular music in both places, his chansons and madrigals not unexpectedly share some features. The chanson was by nature a more form, often strophic and with patterned repetition. As Arcadelt borrowed some features of the chanson when he wrote his madrigals, some of his chansons were actually contrafacta of his madrigals

16.
Council of Trent
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The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Churchs most important ecumenical councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. Four hundred years later, when Pope John XXIII initiated preparations for the Second Vatican Council, he affirmed the decrees it had issued, What was, still is. These addressed a range of subjects, including scripture, the Biblical canon, sacred tradition, original sin, justification, salvation, the sacraments, the Mass. The Council met for twenty-five sessions between 13 December 1545 and 4 December 1563, all in Trento, apart from the ninth to eleventh sessions held in Bologna during 1547, the consequences of the Council were also significant as regards the Churchs liturgy and practices. During its deliberations, the Council made the Vulgate the official example of the Biblical canon and commissioned the creation of a standard version, although this was not achieved until the 1590s. These, in turn, led to the codification of the Tridentine Mass, more than three hundred years passed until the next ecumenical council, the First Vatican Council, was convened in 1869. A few months later, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther issued his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, after the Pope condemned in Exsurge Domine fifty-two of Luthers theses as heresy, German opinion considered a council the best method to reconcile existing differences. German Catholics, diminished in number, hoped for a council to clarify matters. Under Pope Clement VII, troops of the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked Papal Rome in 1527, raping, killing, burning, stealing, saint Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel were used for horses. This, together with the Pontiffs ambivalence between France and Germany, led to his hesitation, Charles V strongly favoured a council, but needed the support of King Francis I of France, who attacked him militarily. This proposal met the opposition of the Pope for it gave recognition to Protestants, faced with a Turkish attack, Charles held the support of the Protestant German rulers, all of whom delayed the opening of the Council of Trent. In reply to the Papal bull Exsurge Domine of Pope Leo X, Martin Luther burned the document, in 1522 German diets joined in the appeal, with Charles V seconding and pressing for a council as a means of reunifying the Church and settling the Reformation controversies. Pope Clement VII was vehemently against the idea of a council, after Pope Pius II, in his bull Execrabilis and his reply to the University of Cologne, set aside the theory of the supremacy of general councils laid down by the Council of Constance. Pope Paul III, seeing that the Protestant Reformation was no longer confined to a few preachers, yet when he proposed the idea to his cardinals, it was almost unanimously opposed. Nonetheless, he sent nuncios throughout Europe to propose the idea, Paul III issued a decree for a general council to be held in Mantua, Italy, to begin on 23 May 1537. Martin Luther wrote the Smalcald Articles in preparation for the general council, the Smalcald Articles were designed to sharply define where the Lutherans could and could not compromise. The council was ordered by the Emperor and Pope Paul III to convene in Mantua on 23 May 1537 and it failed to convene after another war broke out between France and Charles V, resulting in a non-attendance of French prelates

17.
Counter-Reformation
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It also involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition. The 14th, 15th and 16th centuries saw a revival in Europe. This became known as the Catholic Reformation, several theologians harked back to the early days of Christianity and questioned their spirituality. Their debates expanded across the whole of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, whilst secular critics also examined religious practice, clerical behavior, several varied currents of thought were active, but the ideas of reform and renewal were led by the clergy. The reforms decreed at Lateran V had only a small effect, some positions got further and further from the churchs official positions, leading to the break with Rome and the formation of Protestant churches. Even so, conservative and reforming parties still survived within the Catholic Church even as the Protestant Reformation spread, the Protestant Church decisively broke from the Catholic Church in the 1520s. The two distinct positions within the Catholic Church solidified in the 1560s. The Catholic Reformation became known as the Counter-Reformation, defined as a reaction to Protestantism rather than as a reform movement, the regular orders made their first attempts at reform in the 14th century. The Benedictine Bull of 1336 reformed the Benedictines and Cistercians, in 1523, the Camaldolese Hermits of Monte Corona were recognized as a separate congregation of monks. In 1435, Saint Francis of Paola founded the Poor Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi, in 1526, Matteo de Bascio suggested reforming the Franciscan rule of life to its original purity, giving birth to the Capuchins, recognized by the pope in 1619. This order was well-known to the laity and play an important role in public preaching, to respond to the new needs of evangelism, clergy formed into religious congregations, taking special vows but with no obligation to assist in a monasterys religious offices. These regular clergy taught, preached and took confession but were under a bishops direct authority, in Italy, the first congregation of regular clergy was the Theatines founded in 1524 by Gaetano and Cardinal Caraffa. In 1524, a number of priests in Rome began to live in a community centred on Philip Neri, the Oratorians were given their institutions in 1564 and recognized as an order by the pope in 1575. They used music and singing to attract the faithful, the Council upheld the basic structure of the Medieval Church, its sacramental system, religious orders, and doctrine. It rejected all compromise with the Protestants, restating basic tenets of the Roman Catholic faith, the Council upheld salvation appropriated by grace through faith and works of that faith because faith without works is dead, as the Epistle of St. James states. This reaffirmed the previous Council of Rome and Synods of Carthage, the Council also commissioned the Roman Catechism, which still serves as authoritative Church teaching. While the traditional fundamentals of the Church were reaffirmed, there were changes to answer complaints that the Counter-Reformers were, tacitly. Often, these rural priests did not know Latin and lacked opportunities for theological training

18.
Motet
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In western music, a motet is a mainly vocal musical composition, of highly varied form and style, from the late medieval era to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music, according to Margaret Bent, a piece of music in several parts with words is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. In the early 20th century, it was believed the name came from the Latin movere. The Medieval Latin for motet is motectum, and the Italian mottetto was also used, if the word is from Latin, the name describes the movement of the different voices against one another. Today, however, the French etymology is favoured by reference books, in fact, the troped clausulas that were the forerunner of the motet were originally called motelli, soon replaced by the term moteti. The earliest motets arose in the 13th century from the organum tradition exemplified in the Notre Dame school of Léonin and Pérotin, the motet probably arose from clausula sections, usually strophic interludes, in a longer sequence of organum, to which upper voices were added. Usually the clausula represented a sequence in Latin which was sung as a discant over a cantus firmus. The motet took a definite rhythm from the words of the verse, the main exception is the conductus motet, in which the parts proceed in essentially homophonic rhythms. The practice of discant over a cantus firmus marked the beginnings of counterpoint in Western music, from these first motets arose a medieval tradition of secular motets. It is suspected that, for the sake of intelligibility, in performance the cantus firmus, among the trouvères, Robert de Reins La Chievre and Richart de Fournival composed motets. While it grew out of the isorhythmic motet, the Renaissance composers of the motet generally abandoned the use of a repeated figure as a cantus firmus. During this time, however, the use of cantus firmi in works such as the parody mass tended to stretch the cantus firmus out to great lengths compared to the multivoice descant above it. This tended to obscure the rhythm supplied by the cantus firmus that had been apparent in the medieval isorhythmic motet. The cascading, passing chords created by the interplay between multiple voices, and the absence of a strong or obvious beat, are the features that distinguish medieval, the texts of antiphons were frequently used as motet texts. This is the sort of composition that is most familiarly designated by the term motet, in essence, these motets were sacred madrigals. The language of the text was the feature, if it is Latin, it is a motet, if the vernacular. Religious compositions in vernacular languages were often called madrigali spirituali, spiritual madrigals, secular motets continued to be written, however. These motets typically set a Latin text in praise of a monarch, commemorating some public triumph, nevertheless, the themes of courtly love often found in the medieval secular motet were banished from the Renaissance motet

19.
Johann Joseph Fux
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Johann Joseph Fux was an Austrian composer, music theorist and pedagogue of the late Baroque era. He is most famous as the author of Gradus ad Parnassum, a treatise on counterpoint, almost all modern courses on Renaissance counterpoint, a mainstay of college music curricula, are indebted in some degree to this work by Fux. Fux was born to a peasant family in Hirtenfeld, Styria, Austria, relatively little is known about his early life, but likely he went to nearby Graz for music lessons. In 1680 he was accepted at the Jesuit university there, where his talent became apparent. From 1685 until 1688 he served as organist at St. Moritz in Ingolstadt, sometime during this period he must have made a trip to Italy, as evidenced by the strong influence of Corelli and Bolognese composers on his work of the time. In 1698, Leopold hired him as court composer, Fux traveled again to Italy, studying in Rome in 1700, it may have been here that he acquired the veneration for Palestrina which was so consequential for music pedagogy. Fux served Leopold I until his death, and two more Habsburg emperors after that, Joseph I, and Charles VI, both of whom continued to him in high positions in the court. Fux was famous as a composer throughout this period, his fame being eclipsed only later in the 18th century as the Baroque style died out, although his music until recently never regained favor, his mastery of counterpoint influenced countless composers through his treatise Gradus ad Parnassum. Haydn largely taught himself counterpoint by reading it and recommended it to the young Beethoven, mozart had a copy of it that he annotated. The Gradus ad Parnassum is a theoretical and pedagogical work written by Fux in Latin in 1725, Fux dedicated it to Emperor Charles VI. The work is divided into two major parts, in the first part, Fux presents a summary of the theory on Musica Speculativa, or the analysis of intervals as proportions between numbers. The works of Mersenne, Cicero and Aristotle are among the references quoted by Fux in this section and this part is in the form of a dialog, between a master and a student, Josephus, who represents Fux himself, a self-admitted admirer of Palestrina. He also states that theory without practice is useless, thus, his book stresses practice over theory. While Gradus ad Parnassum is famous as the origin of the term species counterpoint, Fuxs work repeated some of Dirutas, possibly coincidentally, since he is not known to have had a copy. In any event, Fux presented the idea with a clarity, in species counterpoint, as given in Fux, the student is to master writing counterpoint in each species before moving on to the next. The species are, in order, note against note, two notes against one, four notes against one, ligature or suspensions, and florid counterpoint, in which the other species are combined freely. Once all the species are mastered in two voices, the species are gone through again in three voices, and then in four voices. Fux expressed the intention of adding sections on how to write counterpoint for more than four parts, however, citing his poor health as a result of gout and age, he chose to conclude the book as it stood

20.
Luca Marenzio
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Luca Marenzio was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance. In all, Marenzio wrote around 500 madrigals, ranging from the lightest to the most serious styles, packed with word-painting, chromaticism, and other characteristics of the late madrigal style. Marenzio was influential as far away as England, where his earlier, lighter work appeared in 1588 in the Musica Transalpina, Marenzio worked in the service of several aristocratic Italian families, including the Gonzaga, Este, and Medici, and spent most of his career in Rome. According to biographer Leonardo Cozzando, writing in the late 17th century, Marenzio was born at Coccaglio and his father was a notary clerk in Brescia. A birthdate of October 18,1553 has been proposed, based his fathers stating in 1588 that his son was 35, and he may have had some early musical training under Giovanni Contino, who was maestro di cappella at Brescia Cathedral from 1565 to 1567. Following his time in Brescia and Mantua, he went to Rome, since Madruzzo had been the employer of Contino in Trent, this may have been arranged by Contino. Shortly after his hire, Luigi attempted to land a position for him with the papal choir, while there he took part in the wedding festivities for Vincenzo Gonzaga and Margherita Farnese, an opulent affair requiring equally opulent music. While in Ferrara Marenzio wrote and dedicated two books of new madrigals to Alfonso II and Lucrezia dEste. In one impassioned letter, dated 1584, Marenzio implored his employer for more prompt payment, a comment by Marenzio to the Duke of Mantua indicates that he may have had considerable other income from freelancing in Rome, either as a singer or a lutenist. During his period of employment with Cardinal Luigi dEste Marenzio began to establish a reputation as a composer. The popularity of his work during this period is evident also in the frequency with which his madrigals appeared in anthologies, by the end of 1587 Marenzio had entered into the service of Ferdinando I de Medici in Florence, where he stayed for two years. It is hard to assess the influence of Florentine composers on Marenzios music, according to Alfred Einstein. he cannot conceivably have come to terms with the Camerata and with its pedantic and pretentious dilettantism. Another important patron at this time was Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini, nephew of the reigning Pope Clement VIII and this cardinal, who presided over an informal academy that gathered together men of letters and learning, assigned to Marenzio an apartment in the Vatican. In 1595 John Dowland came to Italy to meet Marenzio, the two had exchanged letters when Dowland was still in England. Dowland got as far as Florence, and indicated that he wanted to study with Marenzio, but it is not known if he did, Marenzios final trip was a long one. According to pre-20th-century writers, the trip to Poland, which was ordered by the Pope, Marenzio returned from Poland by way of Venice, where he dedicated his eighth book of five-voice madrigals to the Gonzaga family. Marenzio did not live long after reaching Rome, he died on August 22,1599 and he was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina. While Marenzio wrote some sacred music in the form of masses, motets, and madrigali spirituali, the vast majority of his work and they vary enormously in style, technique and tone through the two decades of his composing career

21.
Word painting
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Word painting is the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up, slow, tone painting of words goes at least as far back as Gregorian chant. Little musical patterns are musical words that not only emotive ideas such as joy. For instance, the pattern FA-MI-SOL-LA signifies the humiliation and death of Christ, fA-MI signifies deprecation, while SOL is the note of the resurrection, and LA is above the resurrection, His heavenly glory. Word painting developed especially in the late 16th century among Italian and English composers of madrigals, while it originated in secular music, it made its way into other vocal music of the period. While this mannerism is a prominent feature of madrigals of the late 16th century, thomas Campion, writing in the preface to his first book of lute songs 1601, said of it. Where the nature of word is precisely expresst in the Note … such childish observing of words is altogether ridiculous. Word painting flourished well into the Baroque music period, in Handels melody, the word valley ends on a low note, exalted is a rising figure, mountain forms a peak in the melody, and hill a smaller one, while low is another low note. This can be seen in the example, A modern example of word painting from the late 20th century occurs in the song Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks. During the chorus, Brooks sings the low on a low note. Similarly, on The Whos album Tommy, the song Smash the Mirror contains the line Can you hear me, or do I surmise That you feel me. Can you feel my temper Rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, each repetition of rise is a half-step higher than the last, making this an especially overt example of word-painting. Justin Timberlakes song What goes around is another example of text painting. The lyrics What goes around, goes around, goes around Comes all the way back around descend an octave and then return to the upper octave, in the chorus of Up Where We Belong, the melody rises during the words Love lift us up where we belong. In Johnny Cashs Ring of Fire, there is an inverse word painting where down, down, down is sung to the notes rising, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, Part 1, Disc 6, Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Conservatory of Music

22.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered

23.
Gregorio Allegri
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Gregorio Allegri was an Italian composer of the Roman School and brother of Domenico Allegri, he was also a priest and a singer. He was born and died in Rome and he studied music as a puer at San Luigi dei Francesi, under the maestro di capella Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, brother of Giovanni Maria Nanino. Being intended for the Church, he obtained a benefice in the cathedral of Fermo and he held this from 6 December 1629 until his death. As Andrea Adami wrote, Allegri was regarded as singularly pure and he was one of the earliest composers for stringed instruments, and Athanasius Kircher has given one specimen of this class of his works in his Musurgia. Most of Allegris published music, especially the music, is in the progressive early Baroque concertato style. However, his work for the Sistine Chapel is descended from the Palestrina style and he is credited with the earliest string quartet. By far the most well known and regarded piece of music composed by Allegri is the Miserere mei, Deus and it is written for two choirs, the one of five and the other of four voices, and has obtained considerable celebrity. The Miserere has for years been sung annually during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel. Many have cited this work as an example of the stile antico or prima pratica, however, its emphasis on polychoral techniques certainly put it out of the range of prima pratica. A more accurate comparison would be to the works of Giovanni Gabrieli, in 1771 Mozarts copy was procured and published in England by the famous traveler and music historian Dr. Burney. However, Burneys edition does not show the ornamentation for which the work was famous, the music as it is performed today includes a strange error by a copyist in the 1880s. The curious truckers gear change from G minor to C minor is because the second half of the verse is the same as the first half, the original never had a Top C. The entire music performed at Rome in Holy Week, Allegris Miserere included, has issued at Leipzig by Breitkopf. Interesting accounts of the produced by the performance at Rome may be found in the first volume of Felix Mendelssohns letters

24.
Miserere (Allegri)
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Miserere is a setting of Psalm 51 by Italian composer Gregorio Allegri. The Miserere is written for two choirs, one of five and one of four voices, and is an example of Renaissance polyphony, one of the choirs sings a simple version of the original Miserere chant, the other, spatially separated, sings an ornamented commentary on this. The Tenebrae service where the Miserere would be sung normally began at dusk, during the ritual, candles would be extinguished one by one, save for the last candle which remained alight and was then hidden. Allegri envisioned the setting of the Miserere to be the act within the first lesson of the Tenebrae service. It was the last of twelve falsobordone Miserere settings composed and chanted at the service since 1514 and is the most popular. At some point, it became forbidden to transcribe the music and it was allowed to be performed only at those particular services at the Sistine Chapel, thus adding to the mystery surrounding it. The setting that escaped from the Vatican is actually a conflation of verses set by Gregorio Allegri around 1638, three authorized copies of the work were distributed prior to 1770, to the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, to the King of Portugal, and to Padre Martini. However, none of them succeeded in capturing the beauty of the Miserere as performed annually in the Sistine Chapel, according to the popular story, fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was visiting Rome when he first heard the piece during the Wednesday service. Later that day, he wrote it down entirely from memory, some time during his travels, he met the British historian Charles Burney, who obtained the piece from him and took it to London, where it was published in 1771. The work was transcribed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1831 and Franz Liszt. Since the lifting of the ban, Allegris Miserere has become one of the most popular a cappella choral works now performed. The original ornamentation that made the work famous were Renaissance techniques that preceded the composition itself, few written sources showed the ornamentation, and it was this that created the legend of the works mystery. The Miserere is one of the most frequently recorded pieces of late Renaissance music and this recording was originally part of a gramophone LP recording entitled Evensong for Ash Wednesday but the Miserere has subsequently been re-released on various compilation discs. Historically informed recordings have been released by the Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars and, more recently, in 2015 the Sistine Chapel choir released their first CD, including the 1661 Sistine codex version of the Miserere recorded in the chapel itself. Documents describing Mozarts transcription of the Allegri Miserere

25.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood, already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, while visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame, during his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons and he composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote, posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl and this was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy and his elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth, at St. Ruperts Cathedral in Salzburg, the baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself Wolfgang Amadè Mozart as an adult, Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, Germany, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was appointed as fourth violinist in the establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Four years later, he married Anna Maria in Salzburg, Leopold became the orchestras deputy Kapellmeister in 1763. During the year of his sons birth, Leopold published a textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. When Nannerl was 7, she began lessons with her father. Years later, after her brothers death, she reminisced, He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and he could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. At the age of five, he was composing little pieces

26.
Monody
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In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments anothers death. In music, monody refers to a vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line. Although such music is found in cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of the early 17th century. The term is used both for the style and for individual songs, the term itself is a recent invention of scholars. No composer of the 17th century ever called a piece a monody, compositions in monodic form might be called madrigals, motets, or even concertos. Accompanying instruments could be lute, chitarrone, theorbo, harpsichord, organ, other musical streams which came together in the monody were the madrigal and the motet, both of which developed into solo forms after 1600 and borrowed ideas from the monody. An important early treatise on monody is contained in Giulio Caccinis song collection, ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. ISBN 0-393-09530-4 Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, ISBN 0-393-09745-5 The dictionary definition of monody at Wiktionary more on Monody and the Vocal Concerto

27.
Giovanni Animuccia
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Giovanni Animuccia was an Italian composer of the Renaissance who was involved in the heart of Rome’s liturgical musical life. He was one of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrinas most important predecessors, Animuccia was born in Florence around the beginning of the 16th century. The exact date is given as the end of the 15th century. However, little is known about their training and work during this period, Animuccia and Corteccia were the only significant composers writing madrigals in Florence at the time and both composers published books of madrigals around 1547. Animuccia’s name is mentioned in association with Florentine literary circles. Animuccias second book of madrigals was published in 1551 after his arrival in Rome, after his arrival in Rome in 1550, Animuccia was employed by Cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza. Early on, through his association with Florentine circles, Animuccia met his fellow Florentine St Phillip Neri, St Phillip Neri founded a religious congregation called the Oratory. The Oratory began in the early 1550s as small and informal meetings for discussion and prayer. In 1558, when Phillip obtained a larger room to hold the meetings in, although the precise date is unknown, Animuccia was involved with music for these meetings from early on and remained maestro di capella of the Oratory until his death. Neri was so pleased with Animuccia that he said he had seen soul, Animuccia published two books of laudi for use in the Oratory in 1563 and 1570. His work formed the basis of the oratorios that did not descend from the polyphonic Gregorian Passions, Animuccia’s Florentine influence is evident as some of his texts originate from Florence. Stylistically the two books are rather different, Animuccia’s first book contains simple settings of Italian laudi which are homophonic throughout, and were probably sung by amateur singers as part of Phillip Neri’s early devotional meetings. The music in Animuccia’s second book of laudi is much more madrigal-like, he uses a variety of textures, sonorities. By this time, the number of attending the Oratory had increased significantly. Animuccia’s most important composition for this period was his Il primo Libra di Messe and he held the office until his death at Rome in 1571, succeeded by Palestrina who was his friend and probably his pupil. The final session of the Council of Trent closed in 1563, one of the primary concerns of the council in its latter stages was the reform of the liturgy, in particular the reform of ‘abuses of the Mass’. To carry out the Councils recommendations in Rome, a Reform Commission was set up, headed up by Cardinals Carlo Borromeo, the main issues that Cardinals Borromeo and Vitelli sought to address regarding music were ‘intelligibility’ and the use of secular music in Mass settings. Animuccia’s Il primo Libra di Messe was published at Rome a year later, all the Masses are freely composed plainsong paraphrases - which fulfills the requirement of the eradication of secular influences

28.
Felice Anerio
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Felice Anerio was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was the brother of another important, and somewhat more progressive composer of the same period. Anerio was born in Rome and lived his life there. He sang as a boy soprano at the Julian Chapel from 1568 until 1577, around this time, he began to compose, especially madrigals, this was one of the few periods in his life during which he wrote secular music. Likely he was influenced by Luca Marenzio, who was popular at the time. In 1594, he replaced Palestrina as the composer to the papal choir. In 1607 or shortly afterwards, he became a priest, nevertheless, he achieved an expressive intensity which was his own. Some influence of the Northern Italian progressive movements is evident, though muted, for instance, the use of double choirs, quick homophonic declamatory textures, quick melodic passages in the bass line. In his very last works, the influence of Viadana, the popularizer of the continuo, is evident. Anerio wrote no known purely instrumental music, many magnificats, hymns, motets, and other works were printed by K. Proske in his Musica Divina. ISBN 0-393-09530-4 Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, ISBN 0-393-09745-5 Article Felice Anerio, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Free scores by Felice Anerio in the Choral Public Domain Library Free scores by Felice Anerio at the International Music Score Library Project

29.
Antonio Cifra
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Antonio Cifra was an Italian composer of the Roman School of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the significant transitional figures between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and produced music in both idioms, son of Costanzo and Claudia, Antonio Cifra was born perhaps in Bassiano. He studied with Giovanni Bernardino Nanino from 27 June 1594 at San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome and then, from 18 January 1597, he was boy soprano of the Cappella Giulia at St Peter. From 1605 to 1607 he was maestro at the Roman Seminary, in 1609 he was hired as maestro di cappella at Santa Casa in Loreto, where he remained the rest of his life. Cultural connections between Loreto and Rome were close, and he maintained contact with the composers in Rome during this period. Near the end of his life he took part in several musical events in Rome. Stylistically, Cifras music varies between masses in the Palestrina style, with use of homophony, and more progressive works in the Venetian style. He also used the technique of monody, as pioneered in northern Italy, some of his concertato madrigals are like small cantatas, and can be seen as foreshadowing this development, which began around the time he died. Cifra was also one of the few composers to be influenced by the extreme chromaticism of Carlo Gesualdo. While Cifra did not adopt the technique for works, or for long. For these madrigals he used 18 of Gesualdos own texts, articles Antonio Cifra, Carlo Gesualdo in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Alberto Cametti, La scuola dei «pueri cantus» di S

30.
Domenico Allegri
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Domenico Allegri was an Italian composer and singer of the early Baroque Roman School. He was the son of the Milanese coachman Costantino Allegri, who lived in Rome with his family. Costantino sent three sons, Gregorio, Domenico and Bartolomeo, to music at San Luigi dei Francesi, under the maestro di capella Giovanni Bernardino Nanino. The little boy had as schoolmate his elder brother Gregorio and then Antonio Cifra, Domenico Massenzio and Paolo Agostini. In 1606, Allegri was maestro di cappella of the church of Santa Maria at Spello, from 3 April 1610 until his death, he held the same position at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, where he was buried. Allegri is mainly famous as being one of the first to include specific instrumental accompaniments to sacred music on a small scale. While much of his music is lost, one piece which has survived is the Modi quos expositis in choris of 1617 which has accompaniments to the voices by two violins. Sergio Durante, Domenico Allegri, in Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti, Torino, UTET, 1983–1999, saverio Franchi, Annali della stampa musicale romana dei secoli XVI-XVIII, Vol. 1/I, IBIMUS, Roma,2006, ISBN 978-88-88627-03-8. A new biography with unpublished documents, in Domenico Massenzio Opera omnia, Critical Edition by Claudio DallAlbero e Mauro Bacherini, Vol.1, Milano, Rugginenti,2008, alberto Pironti, Domenico Allegri, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Roma, Treccani. Colin Timms, Domenico Allegri, in New Grove Dictionary, ISBN 0-333-60800-3

31.
Giovanni Maria Nanino
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Giovanni Maria Nanino was an Italian composer and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Roman School of composers, and was the most influential teacher in Rome in the late 16th century. He was the brother of composer Giovanni Bernardino Nanino. Nanino was born in Tivoli, and served as a boy soprano in the cathedral at Viterbo, in the 1560s he probably studied with Palestrina at San Luigi de Francesi in Rome, at any rate, he became maestro di cappella there after Palestrina left. In 1577 he joined the choir as a tenor, and remained in the choir for the rest of his life. Naninos output as a composer was not large, but it was distinguished, almost no collections of madrigals were published in Rome which did not include at least one contribution by Nanino, often in the most prominent position in the book—even ahead of Palestrina. Stylistically his madrigals are extremely varied, in addition to his famous madrigals, he wrote motets, settings of the Lamentations, canons, and sacred songs. As of 1980, no complete edition of his works had been prepared, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Free scores by Giovanni Maria Nanino at the International Music Score Library Project Free scores by Giovanni Maria Nanino in the Choral Public Domain Library

32.
Francesco Soriano
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Francesco Soriano was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most skilled members of the Roman School in the first generation after Palestrina, Soriano was born at Soriano, near Viterbo. Soriano worked with Felice Anerio to revise the Roman Gradual in accordance with the needs of the Counter-Reformation, stylistically, Sorianos music is much like Palestrinas, but shows some influence from the progressive trends prevalent around the turn of the century. He adopted the style, while retaining the smooth polyphonic treatment of Palestrina, and he had a liking for homophonic textures. He wrote masses, motets, psalms, settings of the Passion according to each of the four gospels, Marian antiphons and his Passion settings are significant predecessors of the more famous settings from the Baroque era, for instance those by J. S. Bach, they are set in a restrained but dramatic style, in some ways they are a predecessor of the oratorio, mixing solo voice, chorus, and non-acted character roles, but in a style more related to Palestrina than to anything Baroque. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie

33.
Paolo Quagliati
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Paolo Quagliati was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was a figure between the late Renaissance style and the earliest Baroque and was one of the first to write solo madrigals in the conservative musical center of Rome. Quagliati was born in Chioggia to an aristocratic family, most of his life he spent in the service of various royal and aristocratic families. In 1594 he became a Roman citizen, and between 1605 and 1608 Quagliati was employed by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, most likely he was organist at Santa Maria Maggiore from around 1608 until his death. During that time he served as organist for various formal occasions around the city. Stylistically, Quagliatis music is clear, elegant, and he uses simple diatonic harmonies. These were examples of the new Baroque style of monody, and he states as much in the preface to his 1608 publication, I have decided to cater to both tastes. Quagliati was probably the first to publish solo madrigals in Rome and he wrote both sacred and secular vocal music, as well as some instrumental music. In 1606 he composed Il carro di fedeltà damore, which is considered the first secular azione scenica in Rome, much is written in the concertato style imported from northern Italy, though it would have seemed tame to a Venetian composer. He wrote this work for the wedding of the nephew of the pope to Isabella Gesualdo. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Free scores by Paolo Quagliati at the International Music Score Library Project Free scores by Paolo Quagliati in the Choral Public Domain Library

34.
Ruggiero Giovannelli
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Ruggiero Giovannelli was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a member of the Roman School, and succeeded Palestrina at St. Peters and he was born in Velletri, near Rome. Not much is known about Giovannellis life until 1583 when he became maestro di cappella at S Luigi dei Francesi, in addition to these posts he was maestro di cappella for Duke Giovanni Angelo of Altaemps, at his private chapel, probably concurrently with his other jobs. He also sang, and served in administrative posts. In 1614 he became maestro di cappella at the Sistine Chapel and he is buried in the church of Santa Marta. Giovanelli composed and published a number of secular pieces. He is noted for his music, most of which also survives in manuscript. His output of sacred music fell off late in his life. In 1615 he created a new edition of the Gradule known as the Medicean and he wrote masses and motets, some of which are for as many as 12 voices, and which often use polychoral techniques. Giovannellis music was reprinted widely, in Italy and elsewhere, indicating his broad popularity, sources are incomplete, and may differ about his published works. There are masses, motets, and psalms in manuscript at the Vatican Library, among them a Miserere for four and eight voices, other madrigals are in the collections of Scotto and Phalesisu, and motets and psalms in those of Fabio Constantini and Proske. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

35.
Stefano Landi
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Stefano Landi was an Italian composer and teacher of the early Baroque Roman School. He was an influential composer of opera, and wrote the earliest opera on a historical subject. Landi was born in Rome, the capital of the Papal States, in 1595 he joined the Collegio Germanico in Rome as a boy soprano, and he may have studied with Asprilio Pacelli. Landi took minor orders in 1599 and began studying at the Seminario Romano in 1602, agostino Agazzari was maestro di cappella at the Seminario Romano, and he may have been one of Landis teachers as well. In 1618 he had moved to the north of Italy, and published a book of five-voice madrigals at Venice, in addition he wrote his first opera in Padua, La morte dOrfeo. Most likely it was used as part of the festivities for a wedding and it was for the Barberini family that he wrote the work for which he is most famous, SantAlessio, in 1632, which was used to open the Teatro delle Quattro Fontane. After about 1636 he began suffering ill-health, and he died at Rome in 1639 and was buried at Santa Maria in Vallicella and his other secular music consists of strophic airs, arias, and other songs for voice and basso continuo. Landis masses, of which there are two, are in the simple, 16th-century style encouraged by the Counter-Reformation. However he uses the Venetian concertato style for some of his motets, as well as his Magnificat and Vespers psalm settings, probably as a result of the years he spent in northern Italy. By far his most famous composition, and one of the most significant operas of the early Baroque, is his setting of the life of fifth-century Saint Alexis, Il SantAlessio. Not only is it the first opera to be written on a subject, but it carefully describes the inner life of the saint. Most of the comic scenes, however, are anachronistically drawn from contemporary life in 17th-century Rome. The part of SantAlessio himself is extremely high, and was meant to be sung by a castrato, at the initial performance, half of the singers were from the papal choir, and there were several soprano parts sung by other castrati. The accompanying orchestra is up-to-date, dispensing with the archaic viols and using violins, cellos, harps, lutes, theorbos, the opera includes introductory canzonas which function as overtures, indeed they are the first overtures in the history of opera. SantAlessio was one of the first staged dramatic works successfully to mix both the monodic and polyphonic styles. Arnaldo Morelli, Landi, Stefano, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Margaret Murata, Stefano Landi, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy, Grove Music Online Manfred Bukofzer, ISBN 0-393-09745-5 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 1-56159-174-2 Donald Jay Grout, A Short History of Opera, New York, Columbia University Press,1965

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